Category Archives: events

Every second year our school organises a trip to China, as mandarin Chinese is taught as our second language. Part of this trip involves a four or five day visit to our sister school at no 27 Beijing. It is offered to students in years 9 and above.

I am fortunate to be one of the supervising teachers in attendance. There are 11 students, 2 staff and four adults who are related to the students. On arrival at the airport, we were met by Mr Wan who picked us up and took us by bus to no 27 school where we were greeted to our official welcome, early lunch and then attended classes. We were given a home room where most of the classes took place.

On that first day, our classes included:

Chinese – the historical and modern day importance of a name to the Chinese people

Geography – an overview of Beijing. Students then made models of the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and Tainmen Square

Model of the hutong

Students were then greeted by their host familes who came to the school to pick them up and take them to their homes for four nights. This really pushes students outside their comfort zones as English may not be spoken by the parents or may be very limited. Their homes are tiny compared to our large Australian homes and most Chinese students slept on a couch so that our students could have a bed. The girls especially showed some nervousness about this. All but two families had one child.

The school then treated our staff and adults to a sumptuous meal at a local restaurant where we enjoyed amongst other amazing dishes – the famous Peking or Beijing Duck. The duck was carved in front of us by the chef!

Hawkesdale p12 College welcomes a visit from our sister school, no 27 Beijing, every second year. Students are placed with host families for 7 nights during their visit to Hawkesdale. They attend school for 5 days of their visit and a special timetable is prepared for them. The aim of their visit is to be exposed to the Australian culture and to be immersed in the English language. Many of the host families live on farms and some live in towns of 150 people or less.

It is not until we host international students that we realise how different we are and how much we take for granted of where we live and learn. Following are some of what we have learnt.

Some of the Chinese students have never seen stars

A blue sky is a rarity in Beijing and they love our blue skies.

Some students have never been exposed to the dark (the lights are always on in Beijing)

Many have not eaten with a knife and fork

Many have not seen a rainbow

Our families are large – most have 3 or 4 children.

Our homes are huge cf their small apartments

Houses tend to be one storey here – multi-storey there.

The countryside and space that we have between houses and farms is the complete opposite

There is little traffic ie cars on our country roads but it includes milk tankers, stock trucks and the occasional tractor on the road.

Freedom in internet access.

Students will be able to ride a horse (which they have only seen in picture books or in a zoo)

Many are afraid of dogs and most country families have dogs in Australia.

Australia is a wonderful country to live in and the country areas are great! We were proud to share our country and homes with the students and staff.

Each year, our school holds an Open Night inviting interested families of year 7 students in 2017, to come and visit, see and hear what is offered and be immersed in a number of activities including science, wood technology, sport, technology and cookery.

I was asked to provide a virtual connection with teachers and/or students from other countries so that parents and students could experience the wonderful learning that can occur. Two special colleagues, Sebastian Panakal, from Kerala India and Lin-lin Tan from Taiwan kindly agreed to connect with the groups at the appointed time. As the families were held up, the five students who were helping me, had a special time with Sebastian and Lin-lin asking questions and interacting in conversations. Vesna is studying mandarin Chinese and practiced her Chinese with Lin-lin. The other students also conversed in simple phrases. Skype was the tool used to connect.

It started with mystery skype. The students had helped set up online maps in the computer room and families were grouped around them, trying to determine the country they were from. Sebastian went on to show his wife, Sheena’s beautiful origami which she had learnt to do from youtube. Families found it more difficult to determine where Lin-lin was from, despite her showing puppets, chopsticks and a video as clues. It was a great experience and many thanks go to the Sebastian and Lin-lin for giving up their time to show the learning that technology can bring.

For the first two days of this week I am in Melbourne for one of my favourite conferences – Comview, organised by the Victorian Commercial Teachers Association.

Melbourne is being decked out for Christmas, one of our biggest traditional festivals. The Myer Christmas windows are now open for viewing, the Town Square and Federation Square is being decorated and many of the arcades and laneways feature ornaments. Here is what my journey to work looks like:-

Global Collaboration Day was celebrated on September 17th. Tech Talk Tuesdays weekly webinar series took place on a Thursday to be part of this great day. The topic for conversation was “Best Approaches to Global Collaboration” and the direction of the conversations were chosen by the participants.

The participants came from five countries – Australia, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and USA but they came from a broad section of educational tiers and layers – community members, universities, schools, special interest groups including “Gifted Students”, “Toastmasters” etc. This variety of experiences and interests led to rich discussions. We shared what we could see outside our windows while we were waiting and then shared pictures of what it was like where we live.

Some of the topics raised for potential discussion included:

how much collaboration is enough!

why it is so important to collaborate globally!

Is there a taxonomy for collaboration reqirements, that help us map tools to requirements and simplify the choices?

breaking down the fear barriers for real time collaboration across the globe

Ideas for “Breaking down the fear factors for collaborating across the world”. (Some of the mentioned fears included: loss of control, accents, languages – not being able to speak eg English well enough, cultural challenges, technology confidence, bandwidth/infrastructure etc)

in the World Museum Projects kids love to create interesting fun projects, without using too much language. They can share their projects with people around the world . They get to know each other Scratch. They get interested in each other and feel easier about communicating.

turn the camera off – helps them to be less shy

practise a videoconference call with just one person

watch video recordings, read blogs of people who have already done it.

have images and signage ready to share to ensure understanding

attend Professional Development sessions with encouraging mentor figures

use text chat where possible to support video and/or audio connections

Cross generational collaboration is useful because older students can support and facilitate the younger students eg students in Ann Marie Park’s university often help primary students work on their projects as well as communicating with overseas partners.

understand that you are managing a community

be aware that many social media tools may be blocked in some countries

What would your answers be to some of these questions? Which responses do you support, which would you challenge?

Students (and educators) need to be able to share ideas, and appreciate the similarities and differences in space, place, culture and styles of learning across the globe. As our world becomes increasingly global through consumerism, an international workforce, digital and social media, gameing etc, it is essential that our classrooms become global. Our students are the future problem solvers of world-wide challenges. Global collaboration allows empathy and understanding to develop.

An exciting and unique event is planned for Thursday September 17th – Global Collaboration Day #globaled15 This day is organised by Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon, the co-founders of the Global Education Conference. The main purpose of this unique event is to demonstrate the amazing power of connectivity between classrooms, schools, universities and organisations. This enables learning to take place beyond the textbook and into the real world of people who live, work and breathe there. The physical barriers of oceans, hemispheres, time zones, cost, effort and classroom doors are no longer a hindrance to learning in synchronous or asynchronous time.

A day across the world actually spans 48 hours from the time that the first country enters the 17th September till the last country exits. 185+ schools and organisations are offering events, from across 34 countries with more than 80 projects listed. The numbers are increasing on a daily basis. Educators, classes and organisations are hosting the events using a wide variety of tools that are available for synchronous or asynchronous collaborations. The majority of these tools are free and user friendly across all cultures, languages and countries.

There are twitter chats – some multilingual, webinars, global project launches, simple and complex connections between classes in different countries, padlets for collaboration, skype linkups, google hangouts, periscope live streaming of classes and so much more..

Some interesting event titles include: Soundscapes from around the world, Cultural Collaboration, Recess around the World, Global Journeys to School, Getting to Know Each Other Around the World, So Different and So Similar, UNICEF Live! Wash, A Global Education Gateway (from Beirut), The World’s Largest Global Education Collaboration and Challenge and much, much more. See the full listings of events or view the calendar for your time zone..

slow multilingual twitter chats with #skype2learn: “Learning with the World” and #globalgamechat Global Game Chat with ISTE’s Games and Simulations Network, Global Collaboration Network and Mobile Learning Network.

Let’s Talk About Collaborating Globally – a chat about how to start, what to do and the benefits of including global collaboration in our classes between five educators across the world. Organised by Maria Colussa

The Global Education Conference held in November each year is a highlight for me and exciting time for educators across the world when they gather together for an amazing virtual online conference. This year Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon are organizing a one day event, “Global Collaboration Day” #globaled15 on September 17th. An interesting discovery has been that one day across the world actually goes for nearly 48 hours and Australia is one of the first countries to enter Sept 17th. See for more details

At this stage there are over 130 schools and organisations representing about 29 different countries and 25 oranisations. Approximately 52 events are listed so far but more are being added. It is free. You can organise an event, launch a global project, attend many of the events or participate in some of the projects on offer. See the listing of events or check out the calendar or look for the Participate Tab and link to events. Choose your time zone.

Are you planning any events or hoping to attend any events? What projects will you get involved in?

About Me

G'day! I am a secondary teacher in a small rural prep to year 12 school in Australia. I teach Information Technology and Accounting and am passionate about learning, immersing technology in the classroom, rural education and global education.
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